Sunday, February 21, 2016

WHAT DO THE CHAIR, MR THOMAS KEAN, VICE CHAIR MR LEE HAMILTON AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MR PHILIP D ZELIKOW HAVE TO SAY ON A SERIOUS INVESTIGATIVE LAPSE BY THE 9/11 COMMISSION?

Was the 9/11 commission aware of the following happenings at FAA, in the years before 9/11?
That,

a) FAA's National Airspace System (NAS) Architecture was developed to
provide a high level overview of the behavioral characteristics that
would be intrinsic to the FAA's NAS.
The FAA NAS Architecture
thus described significant changes that were to be made in and outside
the FAA to meet the needs of airspace users, and to increase efficiency
and effectiveness, while accommodating global growth of airspace.

b) A critical characteristic of the FAA NAS was INTEROPERABILITY - the
capability to exchange data and information between and among
applications and platforms. THIS NEEDS EMPHASIS AS THIS WAS ONE OF THE
CORE OBJECTIVES AND IT HAS HUGE IMPLICATIONS.

c) IN JANUARY 1997,
representatives of several FAA organizations which shared understanding
of the objectives described in the Architecture joined to form the NAS
Information Architecture Committee (NIAC).

d) NIAC’s purpose was
to guide, direct and coordinate the establishment and future management
of information-based processes and procedures that accomplished
interoperability of systems across the NAS via data standardization and
data exchange. THE IMPLICATION OF THIS IS HUGE AGAIN.

e) NIAC
co-chairs (whoever they were) assembled a steering committee and
obtained funding from other FAA organizations to design and conduct a
conference to increase understanding of the implications of sharing NAS
information. PLEASE NOTE THAT NAS INFORMATION WAS TO BE SHARED.

f) The steering committee met weekly from December 1997 to April 1998 to
plan a 2-day conference for the FAA, selected government agencies, and
PRIVATE contractors (WHO WERE THEY?) who were supporting NAS operational
systems.

g) The committee identified six important issues
surrounding interoperability and prepared a list of NAS stakeholders who
were invited to participate in a discussion of those issues.

h)
The conference, ACHIEVING INTEROPERABILITY WITH A NAS COMMON DATA
ARCHITECTURE, was thus held on April 21 and 22, 1998. It was the first
of several participatory symposia on issues of interoperability.

i) Support for the ABOVE INTEROPERABILITY conference theme was presented
in letters from the FAA Administrator, Ms. Jane Garvey and the Acting
Associate Administrator for Air Traffic Services, Mr. Ron Morgan.
Incidentally, Ms Jane Garvey testified before the 9/11 commission!

j) The conference theme OF INTEROPERABILITY was also underscored in the
conference keynote address given by Dr. Anne Harlan, the Director of
the W.J. Hughes Technical Center, as well as the other presentations
made by key FAA staff, ATM experts from EuroControl, and the renowned
Systems Architect, Dr. Eberhardt Rechtin.

k) Almost 200 FAA
managers, systems engineers, analysts and PRIVATE contractor staff then
participated in six parallel Work Sessions on the key issues, and
presented recommended approaches to the full session at the end of the
conference.

l) The primary goals of the two-day conference were not only met, but several were exceeded.
In other words, the NAS was designed by the NIAC as noted above and it
has serious AND HUGE implications for 9/11 because it is this NIAC
developed NAS that failed totally on 9/11.
Right Folks, That
being the case, i am totally amazed as to why the 9/11 commission DID
NOT investigate, IN A FOCUSSED MANNER, the issues around NAS, its
design, the role of the NIAC IN DESIGNING THE NAS and so on.

Without any doubt, the Chair, Mr Thomas Kean, the Vice Chair, Mr Lee
Hamilton, Other Commissioners and the Executive Director, Mr Philip
Zelikow (and Other Staff ) have to take responsibility for this very
serious INVESTIGATION lapse by the 9/11 commission and themselves.

How can they explain this SERIOUS LAPSE made by them and the 9/11
commission? What can they say to to the American people and the global
community on this? What implications does this SERIOUS LAPSE have for
the investigation of 9/11 as a crime!

Stay tuned for more updates
and information in the coming months as we further analyse the issues
surrounding the NAS and NIAC with regard to the work of the 9/11
Commission.

About Me

Ramesh S Arunachalam is an Engineer MBA who has been a columnist, a filmmaker, an entrepreneur, a development practitioner, a socio-political commentator, and a strategic advisor. He has worked in several areas including financial sector and its regulation and supervision, Governance, ERP systems, infrastructure and urban development, e Governance etc. Ramesh has completed over 260 professional assignments in 28 years, working in over 560 districts of India and over 25 countries in Asia, Africa, North America, Europe and the Caribbean. His clients include governments, bi-lateral and multi-lateral agencies, regulators, commercial banks, investment banks, microfinance institutions, private sector firms and several other stakeholders globally. He has authored and published numerous reports/studies/papers. His blog on microfinance has been well received and he has also penned several books - The Journey of Indian Microfinance, An Idea Which Went Wrong: Commercial Microfinance in India, Where Angels Prey and Madam President: History in the Making? – all of which have received critical acclaim. His forthcoming book, 9/11: The Unanswered Questions is slated for release in September 2016.